The most shocking fact of the crisis is that even after mid-2006—when ratings agencies' own assumptions were being violated and delinquencies in the 2004-05 cohorts were forming, prompting Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs to protect themselves—Fannie, Freddie, Citibank, UBS, and Merrill Lynch continued to originate, sponsor, and hold subprime deals at peak levels; had just those five institutions stopped in mid-2006, the crisis would not have occurred.